Union official confident Toledo will win new Wrangler

The head of the UAW in Toledo said Wednesday that the next-generation Wrangler "is ours to lose," and said he expects Fiat Chrysler Automobiles will make a final decision in the coming weeks on where it will produce the SUV.

Development officials in Toledo and Ohio have designed a proposal designed to convince the automaker to produce the next-generation Wrangler in Toledo rather than moving it to another plant in another state. The frenzy began after CEO Sergio Marchionne said it would cost more to retool the Toledo plant than other plants.

But a proposal submitted by development officials provides FCA US with a way to buy up to 100 acres of land adjacent to the existing Jeep plant. The additional land would allow the automaker to boost annual production from about 240,000 Wranglers to 350,000 and would help the automaker avoid costly down time as it changes over to the new model.

"I really believe it's ours to lose," said UAW Local 12 President Bruce Baumhower. "I think the members have put us in a very good position, I think the city, the county and the (Lucas County) Port Authority and the state of Ohio have put together a very attractive package that answers all of Sergio's concerns."

Winning production of the next Wrangler would do more than just preserve the 1,700 jobs for Toledo workers that make the current SUV. It would likely mean hundreds of additional workers because because of the growing global demand for the Wrangler.

FCA must make a decision soon on where to make the next Wrangler because it wants to begin production by the end of 2017 and it would take months to either expand the existing plant or build a new plant.

In January, Marchionne noted that workers in Toledo sacrificed vacation time on many occasions and have worked overtime over the past several years to meet growing global demand for the Jeep Wrangler and said that the company "owes it" to Toledo workers to keep the Wrangler there if they can work out the financial equation.

Last week, Jeep CEO Mike Manley said the company must solve production constraints at the Toledo plant, the cost of retooling the plant and find a way to make the transition to the new model with the least amount of lost production time.

"Obviously, what you are trying to do, is to solve as many parts of the equation as you can going forward," Manley said. "You get rare opportunities to do that. "

Contact Brent Snavely: 313-222-6512 or bsnavely@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @BrentSnavely.